Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

125 reviews

ctara2123's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Violence, Slavery, Physical abuse, Death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Grief, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, and War

Minor: Torture

kiwij96's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Having heard many positive reviews about this series and of Brandon Sanderson's writing, I thought I'd start here, as was suggested. Maybe I went into this with too high an expectation, but this didn't really capture my attention past the fifth chapter, but I stuck with it in the hopes that the story would progress or improve. It didn't for me.

There were chapters upon chapters of filler, and seemingly important pieces of plot or development often happened off-page. My favourite characters were the supporting cast pretty much, because they were the only ones with any personality (Dox, Clubs, Spook, Breeze, Ham, Sazed). The whole book was just a grown adult man relying heavily on the capabilities of a 16-17 year old child, and often putting her in harm's way for no reason whatsoever.

Some parts of the story felt either info-dumpy or unfinished, and, at a couple of points, repetitive. There was also the mini romance plotline which was just completely out of place.

Also the ending happened too quickly. After reading 500 pages on what was essentially dialogue (don't even get me started on the amount of times the word "said" was used), politics and "oh woe is me", the ending felt very rushed and as though even Sanderson wanted the story to be over.

However, the magic system was interesting and a great concept, and there was some good camaraderie between the crew members. But that was essentially 100 pages of enjoyment really so idk, maybe I should have DNFed, I'm sorry.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Murder

Minor: Mental illness and Rape

emmacartlidge's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Violence, War, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape and Torture

boredomandwordsofbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is definitely a world I can see my self doing a full deep dive into, but let's see how the length of the books affects that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Racism, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Colonisation, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Kidnapping, War, and Torture

Minor: Rape and Blood

dollarsignimp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Racial slurs, Death, Colonisation, Blood, Racism, Emotional abuse, Classism, War, Torture, Child death, and Murder

loudmouthbooklover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

There was a lot of world building, but I did love the characters in this book and it made me hate characters too. But all in all it was a fun time. Be prepared to get a lot of information to digest but by the end love every second of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Death, Child abuse, and Classism

Minor: Genocide, Torture, War, and Child death

ikiteahill's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The beginning of the book felt quite slow. Trying to follow the politicking and planning was a little convoluted and boring. But then the action picks up in the second half of the book and there's some really well written action scenes. I love the magic systems in this book and the concept of the world is really interesting (even if I don't fully understand how they grow food if all the plants are dead and brown... like, supposedly there are no flowers but they do eat fruit??). I really enjoyed watching Vin

grow into her allomantic powers

. And I loved Kelsier as a character and his relationship with Vin. Seized also became one of my favorite characters.

I don't know if I'll enjoy the next book with the two of them not in it. I would hope that Seized comes back from his journey soon to help Vin or that he gets some of his own main character time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Blood, Child abuse, Murder, Slavery, Hate crime, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Grief, and Genocide

Moderate: Rape, Confinement, Body horror, Infertility, and Misogyny

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

naomi_k's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Slavery, Blood, Death, Violence, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Torture, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Child death, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Genocide, Religious bigotry, Rape, and Death of parent

kay_simmons's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

If you’re looking to read high fantasy, please read this book! I’m at a loss of words and I don’t know how else to say how GOOD this book is. Very well written! It did feel like it was slow in a few areas and I understand why. The world building, the characters, found family, power, conflicts, action and gore. Such a great descriptive book, it was like watching a movie than reading. Although, it took me a little longer than normal to read, I could not stop thinking about it. What’s great about this book to is how little you could even theorize about what would happen. Even though he gave SO much information there was always something that made you have to rethink your theory that you didn’t know what to expect. Brava brava!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

stardewrally's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Violence and Sexual violence

Minor: Rape